Missouri's Sunshine Law is the state's public records and public meetings law. It allows you and I to see what our government is doing with our money.
The law was passed in 1973 by Republicans and Democrats in Missouri's government. Unfortunately, over 50 years after it passed, Missouri's Sunshine Law is not as well-respected by some of our officials as it once was, and some people in our government refuse to follow the law.
The Sunshine Law comes up in litigation in several ways.
1) When you are investigating a potential case against the government, like a violation of your civil rights under a 42 USC Section 1983 case, you can request government records via the Sunshine Law. This is a crucial use of the Sunshine Law because many times victims of government abuses don't have nearly as much information about what happened to them as the government.
2) Applying for government grants can lead to some strange results. Why was your company turned down but another accepted? The process should be a competitive one where the best proposal wins, but, unfortunately, sometimes the application process is riddled with politics or the results are caused by an overloaded staff likely to make mistakes. The Sunshine Law can play a big part in uncovering the workings of big government contracts involving a lot of taxpayer money.
3) Sometimes, you're at the right spot at the right time and you witness government corruption. The purpose of the Sunshine Law is to allow Missourians to be a check on their government. "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants," Justice Brandeis once wrote.
4) Citizen participation is essential to our representative democracy, and the Sunshine Law ensures that our government meetings are open to the public. The law requires a lot of major governmental decisions to be made in a public meeting with enough notice given for Missourians to attend. Unfortunately, we've seen quite a few cases of people being shut out of these public meetings illegally.
The Sunshine Law is a tool for every Missourian to keep their government accountable.
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